


Cassandra

by orphan_account



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mythology, JayTim Week, JayTimBINGO2019, M/M, Pre-Slash, Prophetic Visions, disclaimer: not very mythological
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-18 23:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20200117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Tim's Seen a lot of things, from the Flying Graysons' fall to the weather two weeks from now. This time, he Sees Robin's death.





	Cassandra

Tim’s alarm clock goes off for the third time, and he rolls his desk chair, reaches an arm out, and hits the off button. There’s a Star Trek mug in his hands, and he chugs the remaining coffee. He stuffs the essay he was working on for half the night into his backpack, and makes his way downstairs. The housekeeper, Mrs. Mac, is waiting for him at the front door with a packed lunch and a warm smile.

“Thank you,” Tim says. His voice is a little hoarse, like it usually is in the mornings.

Mrs. Mac pays no heed to his gratitude. Instead, she ushers him out the door and into the car, “Now hurry along, Timothy. You don’t want to keep Westley waiting.”

Westley, the chauffeur, grins at Tim through the rear-view mirror. Tim smiles back, blinks, and sees the Joker’s smile snap into place on Westley’s face. The car starts, and they pull out of the drive-way, his mouth still twisted into a cheek-splitting grin.

Tim’s Seen a lot of things, from the Flying Graysons’ fall to the weather two weeks from now. Seeing the Joker is new, and if he’s honest, a little terrifying. His mother would be disappointed. He wisely keeps his mouth shut, and listens to the Led Zeppelin soundtrack that Westley likes to play on the morning drives to school.

There’s a tangible anxiety in Tim’s gut, as he waits for the entire vision to kick in. A strong sense of vertigo hits him harder than anything he’s felt before, and he knows this one is going to be vivid. Everything starts to shift, his body beginning to feel heavier, and the noise of a crowd has been growing steadily louder.

When it all stops, he’s sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair at an airport. Despite the indiscernible chattering, there’s only one person here. It’s a boy in a red hood, walking towards the exit and holding a ticket. Dread is slowly filling Tim, when the boy looks up and he realizes it’s Jason Todd. He practically sprints across the airport, and tugs on Jason’s sleeve right before he’s about to leave. Jason stares at him, “Are you okay kid?”

“Where are we?” he says between pants.

“We just landed in Ethiopia.” Jason looks around, “Where are your parents? You should really go find ‘em.” The fact that the airport is devoid of anyone doesn’t seem to register.

“Why are you here? What’s going to happen?”

He scowls at Tim, “It’s none of ya business! Go find your family already.” He pulls his arm out of Tim’s grip and leaves. The vision of the airport is beginning to crumble, and Tim hurries after Jason.

As soon as he steps through the doors, he hears something akin to thudding. His mind quickly adjusts to the new environment. It’s a warehouse, empty of everything aside from two people in the center. Tim realizes that the thudding was from the swings of a bloodied crowbar, beating Robin to death. The Joker is standing above him, cackling.

Tim rushes forward, determined to stop him. He takes a hit for Robin and goes down hard. “Oh how’d you get in here, brat? Don’t you know three’s a crowd? You should be happy I’m so generous--!” The word is punctuated by another swing. “Well, they do say ‘the more, the merrier!’” There’s a loud ringing sound in Tim’s ears that drowns out the Joker’s laughter and the thuds when his attention switches back to Robin.

The ringing is fading and he rises on his forearms. There’s still an incessant _ beeping _, and Tim looks up. He’s face-to-face with a bomb that’s slowly counting down from a minute. He scrambles to his feet, despite his body’s protests. Robin’s next to him, blinking back into consciousness, and Tim hooks his arms under his, dragging them to the doors. They’re locked. He looks back and the bombs at five seconds. Robin pushes him to the ground and covers him, protecting him. The bomb goes off.

Tim sneezes and starts back into reality. He can still smell smoke and that unmistakable smell of charred flesh.

“Woah, you okay Timmy?” Westley’s eyes are on him through the rear-view mirror. “You spaced out there a while. If you feel sick, I can still drive you back home.”

Tim shakes his head, “No. I’m uh, fine. Besides, we’re already pulling up.” He tacks an awkward chuckle at the end for good measure.

True to his word, the car slows to a stop in front of his middle school. Westley turns to speak, but Tim’s already shouted his goodbye and rushed out the door.

* * *

Tim waits outside of Gotham Academy. He managed to sneak out of school before his last class (gym, so no one’s going to notice his absence) and called a cab. The driver didn’t blink an eye at his middle school uniform, instead asking if he even had a wallet on him.

He’s abuzz with nervous energy, as he tries not to think about how his family’s always been predisposed to not having people believe them, even at the cost of their own life. It’s a bad train of thought. His fingers fiddle with his backpack straps, the fidgeting betrays his poker face.

The last bell rings and the students start filing out. He has to stand on the very tippest of his toes to even have a chance of spotting Jason. The crowd is starting to dwindle, when Jason Todd finally comes out. The highschooler waves at a butler waiting outside a car. Tim walks as quickly as he can without sprinting, and plants a hand on Jason’s shoulder a little too hard. He turns, looks Tim over with a raised eyebrow.

“Do I know you?” he asks, although he stares pointedly at Tim’s middle school blazer.

He cuts straight to the point, “Don’t go to Ethiopia.” He thinks he cut to the point a little too quickly, considering Jason’s very confused face.

“Why would I go to Ethiopia?”

“Just don’t go! Or at least take Bruce with you if you do!” Tim waves his arms around, frantically. Jason grabs Tim’s shoulders, rubbing circles with his thumbs.

“Okay,” Jason’s voice takes a soothing tone that Tim would usually find patronizing. “What is this about, kid?”

He calms down, mostly because he realized how embarrassing this was for himself, being this frazzled. “I’m two years younger than you.” Jason raises his eyebrow again. “Anyway, I don’t know why you’d go to Ethiopia, but it’s just… better that you not go? It’s too dangerous, Joker will beat and explode you to death.”

He looks at Tim like he’s crazy. It’s better than what he was expecting, so he’ll take it. “Okay kid, alright. I promise I won’t go to Ethiopia, and the Joker’s been in Arkham for months. Now why don’t ya head on home, I’m sure your parents are very worried about you.” Tim doesn’t mention that his parents have been in Greece (Mother always liked Greece) for the past two weeks, and that they were in maybe Argentina before that.

“Okay,” Tim nods. “I’ll uh, take my leave now.” He turns and walks as quickly as he can, trying to ignore the weight of Jason’s eyes on his back

* * *

Tim watches the news carefully for the next few weeks, expecting the news of Jason Todd’s death to come any time. It’s a month after his warning, when Joker’s arrest by Robin in Ethiopia is plastered across the papers and TV. The suspense, anxiety, and dread just pools out of Tim and he sobs with relief on his couch.

He doesn’t expect anything to happen after that, but a couple weeks later, his doorbell rings. It startles Tim enough that he drops the stale cookies he was grabbing out of the pantry. He blinks, thinking that maybe he hallucinated it, and picks up the cookies. The doorbell rings again, and he scrambles to get to the door. It opens to reveal a wary smile and deep blue eyes.

“Hi?” Tim waves awkwardly.

“You gonna let me in or nah?”

Tim steps aside, allowing Jason to enter the foyer. He’s wringing his hands a little. “So, what are you doing here?”

“Came to thank you,” he shrugs, cheeks a little pink from the slight chill that April brings. “I did end up going to Ethiopia, but without ya, I would’ve been dead meat. How’d the fuck did ya know what was going to happen anyway? Happen to be the Joker’s crony or something?”

“Or something. I can, uh, See the future. It just comes from my mother’s line,” Tim’s eyes are glued to the floor. “She uses it for business and the occasional world-ending prophecy. I don’t have that level of control yet.” Tim finally looks up, “Anyone would’ve done the same, it’s no big deal.”

Jason barks out a humorless laugh at that. “Yeah, I doubt that kid. Easier to keep your head down and mouth shut.”

Tim nods solemnly. They both know how true that is, even if their circumstances were different. There’s a few moments of silence, before Jason asks, “Why don’t I take ya to lunch? To pay you back. I know a real good diner. If you’re down with it, I mean.”

“No, it’s fine! Really, you don’t need to pay me back or anything.”

Jason ignores him, opens the door, and pushes Tim out of it. He grabs Tim’s pair of shoes and hands them to him. “You’re skinnier than a fuckin’ stick. Someone needs to feed you, might as well be me. Now, hurry up and put your shoes on. I borrowed one of B’s bikes, so we gotta drop that off first.”

**Author's Note:**

> Fuckin yeet ig.
> 
> This had a very different direction than what I was planning? I was gonna go the "Tim has prophecies and no one believes him because he has the same curse as Cassandra from Greek mythos" route but like guess the fuck not huh.
> 
> Also I'm late, technically 'cause it's 1:51 AM.
> 
> Why can't I write to 2k.


End file.
